Tag Archives: Thoughts

Here it is four days into 2011 already and I am just getting around to blogging once more – or maybe more than once. We’ve had a quiet New Year so far. The other retirees here are up into their 80’s, or more, so we just watched the “ball drop” in our own apartment.

We had a great Christmas. Our grandsons – ages nine and eleven – came on Christmas day and we took them out for sandwiches that evening. (Have you ever tried to find fast food on Christmas night.) We started out looking for a Taco Bell and ended up at Jack in the Box. The boys ate like it was their last meal.

They stayed over and went to church with us, then we all ate brunch and we taught them to play pool. They thought it was funny that they came to the “old folks’ home” and Gran’ma and Poppa taught them.

We have just been lying low since New Year and are now contemplating taking down the Christmas decorations – one day soon, I suppose – so it will look like our apartment again and the housekeeper will be able to get around inside and do her job.

As you can see, we are really enjoying the retired life. I haven’t had any editing jobs – yet – but have done some more writing. They are “published” online at www.BookRix.com/-tilden.editing. Come on over and read my books and some of my peers, as well. Make some comments and I will try to answer them all.

As my retirement continues, I am beginning to realize that just in order to not stay bored – not to mention a little extra money – I am going to want/ need to take up some serious editing and proofreading again. This will allow me to continue to have a flexible schedule, yet still give me the opportunity to establish a working schedule for myself.

Just a few more days to go! Too few. I know we’ll be ready on time, but it just doesn’t look like it now – or at least when I left the house this morning.

Once we’re all settled in our new little apartment my responsibilities and schedule will be totally different. I’m traditionally the early-riser, so I plan to head for the library, or some such place, with my “yellow legal pad” and a cup of coffee and write. And yes, I really do write by hand on a yellow legal pad – first draft, anyway.

As I continue writing I will try to keep you all up to date with excerpts or questions about the process; so get your “thinking caps” out of the closet. I’ll be asking your advice soon.

What tragedy we see around us every day. Wars and rumors of wars, it says in the Bible. Earthquakes killing thousands, tsunamis, landslides, and forest fires. It seems like you can’t pick up your paper or your online news site without reading about the destruction of our earth and the people on it.

First it was Andrew Koenig. Now it’s Marie Osmond’s son. Suicide is probably the most tragic thing that can happen – especially to the family of the victim. In “real fact” we all become victimized by such a thing.

It doesn’t really matter how your child dies. Not really. He or she is your child and there’s a bond there that doesn’t exist anywhere else. Especially for the mother. Regardless of what happens at birth, the umbilical is never totally separated from the mother. That’s why it’s probably harder for her.

I said yesterday that my wife and I lost our only son in July. It still haunts us both, and we are each grieving in our own way. I never want to have to go through this again, and I know the Koenig and Osmond families pray that too.

At this, I shed a tear and send up a prayer for these families and there losses and their grief. I’m not ready to toss theological or philosophical phrases at them. They will probably never be ready to hear them.

Let’s just all take a moment to thank God for His Wisdom and His Grace.

We offer up to you all our prayers at this time. We do know how much this hurts, but no two situations are ever the same.

No one should have to bury their own children. No one should have to outlive their own children.

But, somehow, things happen and our children make poor choices. What ever we have taught them, we would never want them to feel like we will be making all their decisions for them for the rest of their lives.

So, we let go. That is the first heartbreak. Our children go away to college. They get married. They get jobs out-of-town. And each time they leave us, they leave a little bit of a hole in us.

When a child takes his own life, we know it is final. There will be no visits for Christmas. There will be no vacations together. Everything will have changed. Forever.

We cry. We mourn. We grieve “right out loud.” And we think it will never get any better for us. And it may or it may not. There is a time factor, and our overall response to tragedy which factor into this.

I – we, my wife and I – know what it is to lose a son to suicide. Our son took his own life on June 22, 2009. He had been suffering for years with physical, emotional, and spiritual pain. He was a 13-year Coast Guard petty officer. This had been his love. All the above, plus Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, contributed to a severe depression which caused him to make a wrong decision and to take his own life.

We will always miss our Charlie. Even the good memories of him will always be bittersweet.

But there is healing! God, however you perceive Him, will be with you just as He is with your Andrew at this very moment. I want you to know … I want all of you to know … that God knows our hurts, and heals them. Remember, He lost His only Son, too.

A Word to You:

While I don't claim to be any wiser than the next guy, I do want to write blogs which will make you think. Therefore, I try to put a lot of thought into each one and give you room to ponder and ruminate on the topic(s) I write.
As you read, I invite you to comment on what I have written about. My word is NEVER the final word on anything - regardless of what I'd like to think - and I'm always willing to hear comment and feedback.
With all that having been said; Let's read, let's write.
Blessings,
>Wayne